Stardate 60644.28 - Mid-Day in Harlem

Today we went to Harlem for lunch and to take in a museum. We actually ate lunch at two places, House of Seafood and Roti Plus. Both places had been recently mentioned in Time Out New York as part of one of their Cheap Eats articles. We subscribe to "TONY" as it is known, and it is worth is - great content on food, theater, film, etc. We keep their food issues around for at least a year and go back months later to find someplace new to go.

Anyway, I had been craving fish and chips since last weekend when Cheryl and I tried to go to A Salt and Battery in the East Village and found it closed. Based on TONY we decided to go to House of Seafood. The chips were just ok, but the fish was pretty darn good - white fish with a cornmeal breading. The plate was HUGE for just $6.50. There is a small counter inside but most of their business seemed to be carry-out. Cheryl, on the other hand, was craving Roti so after I had my fill of fish we went two doors down for her to eat.

Roti Plus (Caribbean) was quite good, and the owner? manager? was very engaging with the customers, sitting down at the table with some (regulars?) and chatting away. Roti Plus was actually a sit-down place, with a high-chair for Loren, and was very pleasant, clean, and tidy. The food was really good, and Cheryl said it was worth a trip back if we were in the neighborhood again (but the neighborhood is on West 125th street in Harlem, so unless we were going to the Apollo we probably won't be there too often - 60 blocks away and the other side of Manhattan from us).

We did have one customer chat us up in Roti Plus and admire Loren. On the way out she tried to have her husband give Loren a dollar. We refused as we exited, and thought afterwards that hopefully it wasn't some type of cultural thing and we hadn't completely mortified them with our insensitivity.

After lunch we went to the Studio Museum Harlem and looked at the works there. It is a very tiny space, and at $14 "suggested donation" to enter for the two of us we felt a little cheated. We could have read every plaque below every picture and still been out in under an hour. With Loren, reading all the plaques is a little more problematic, so we just read the ones by the works that caught our eye and were still out in less than 30 minutes.

By this time we were hot and tired and we went back to the subway. Loren fell asleep on the way and Cheryl had to hold sleeping Loren all the way back to our stop. Loren continued to sleep through the transfer to the stroller and all the way home. She slept until about 10 minutes after we got home, after which she woke up refreshed and ready to tear through all her books! By that time, Cheryl and I wanted naps because she was up every hour last night and we are exhausted.

Tonight, Jeff Reed and his wife Patti are stopping by and we are all going to go to dinner. I went to High School with Jeff and he is in town on business. We kept in touch throughout college (WVU for him) and we both lived in the Northern Virginia area after graduation at the same time. I'm looking forward to catching up and having them meet Loren.

NYC